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UNITED STATES OF AMERIOA. 




ifnassacl)ii6EttS IDtstorital g>ocittp. 



TRIBUTE 



TO THE MEMORY OF 



COUNT ADOLPHE DE CIRCOURT, 



A FOREIGN HONORARY MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY. 



BY 



HON. ROBERT C. WINTHROP, LL.D. 



PRESIDENT. 



Privately reprinted from the Proceedings of the Massachusetts 
Historical Society. 




^^,p 



MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



At a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 
in Boston, Jan. 8, 1880, the President, Hon. Robert C. 
WiNTHROP, paid the following tribute to the memory 
of Count Adolphe de Circourt, an Honorary Member, 
news of whose death had been received since the last 
meeting : — 

Count Adolphe de Circourt was elected a foreign Honorary 
Member of this Society on the 8th of November, 1860. He 
died on tlie 17th of last November (1879), at La Celle St. 
Cloud, not far from Paris, in the seventy-eighth jeav of his 
age. I owed my personal acquaintance with him to the his- 
torian Prescott, who kindly gave me a note of introduction 
to him on my first visit to Europe in 1817. From that time 
until his death I had enjoyed the privilege of his friendship 
and correspondence ; not man}^ months passing away during 
that long period without our exchanging letters. By a strik- 
ing coincidence our last letters to each other were written on 
the same day, and that day was just three days before his 
death, and only one day before he was struck by the sudden 
shock which rendered him unconscious, and under which he 
gradually sunk. His closing words to me — and perhaps his 
last written words to any one — were: "My health is scarcely 
better, yet I begin tolerably the winter season. Faithfully 
and gratefully yours, A. Circourt." 

You will indulge me, Gentlemen, I am sure, if I dwell for 
a few moments on the character and accomplishments of one 
whom I had known so long, and whom I valued so highly. 
His name was placed on our rolls at the concurrent sugges- 
tion of the late Mr. Ticknor and myself. Mr. Ticknor had 



known him, and corresponded with him, ten years before I 
had, and had learned, with Prescott and Bancroft, to appre- 
ciate his great abilities and acquirements. 

In Ticknor's " Life of Prescott " will be found a tribute to 
Circonrt, while he was yet a young man, such as hardly any 
other man, since "the admirable Crichton," has ever received. 
It is quoted from the History of the Revolution of 1848, by 
the poet-president of the French Republic of that year, La- 
martine. " This person," says Lamartine, in vindicating his 
appointment of him to a foreign mission, " little known as 
yet out of the aristocratic world, a man of literature and 
learning, is M. de Circonrt. He had been employed in 
diplomacy under the restoration. The Revolution of July 
(1830) had thrown him into retirement and opposition, being 
more inclined to legitimacy than democracy. He had profited 
of these years of seclusion to devote himself to studies which 
would have absorbed many men's lives, but which wei-e only 
the diversions of his own life. Languages, races, geography, 
history, philosophy, travels, constitutions, religions of peoples 
from the infancy of the world down to our own day, from 
Thibet even to the Alps, — he had incorporated them all into 
his mind, had reflected upon them all, had retained them all. 
One might question him on the universality of facts and ideas 
which make up the world, without his being obliged, in order 
to give an answer, to consult any other volumes' than his own 
memory, — a vast extent, surface, and depth of information, 
of which no one ever knew the bottom or the limits, — a living 
world-chart of human knowledge, — a man all head, and 
whose head was at the height of all truths ; impartial mean- 
time, indifferent as to systems, as a being whg was only intel- 
ligence, and who held to human nature only by observation 
and curiosity. M. de Circonrt had married a young Rus- 
sian girl of an aristocratic family and of a European spirit. 
Through her he had relations to all which was eminent in the 
literary or court circles of Germany and of the North. He 
had resided at Berlin, and had ties with the statesmen of 
Prussia, The King of Prussia, a literary and liberal sovereign, 
had honored him with some degree of intimacy at his court. 
M. de Circourt, without being a republican at heart, was 
sufficiently impressed by the grand horizon which a French 
republic, springing up from the progressive and pacific genius 
of a new France, could open to the human mind, to salute 
and to serve that republic. He comprehended with Lamartine 
that Liberty had need of Peace, and that Peace must be found 
at Berlin and London." 



Such was the portrait of Count Circourt in a history pub- 
lished thirty years ago, and such were the impressions of his 
capacity and character under which Lamartine, during his 
''three months of power," made liim the envoy of the French 
Republic to the Prussian Court. There is authority for think- 
ing that he would gladly have sent him as Minister to Wash- 
ington; but the jealousy of the French liberals at that period 
would not allow their new republic to be represented in our 
old republic by one who had been so recentl}^ and so inti- 
mately associated with the ancien regime. It was even 
whispered that our own Minister at Paris discouraged the 
appointment. Circourt had, indeed, been a perfect stranger 
to all the preparations of the Revolution of 1848, and had 
uttered no words in praise of it, after it was accomplished. 
But he had lived for twenty years on a footing of personal 
friendship with Lamartine, and had entire faith in the goodness 
of his intentions, and in the purity and patriotism of his 
motives; and he was unwilling to refuse to serve him, and to 
serve his countiw, in any way in his power. More especially 
would he not decline to co-operate with him for the preserva- 
tion of peace, and for the cultivation of friendly relations 
between Prussia and France. 

He was not, as we have seen, wholly a stranger to 
diplomacy. As a very young man, nearly twenty years 
before, he had been employed in the administrative ser- 
vice of his country, in the home department and in the 
foreign department successively. He was associated with 
the Counts Bois-le-Comte, Flavigny, and Louis de Viel-Castel 
in the department of foreign affairs, under the ministry of 
Prince Polignac, when the Revolution of 1830 overthrew 
Charles X. ; and Ticknor said of him at Dresden in 1836, " to 
the honor of his personal consistency he refuses still to wear 
the tri-colored cockade." He was a legitimist in principle, 
I think, to the end of his life. But there was nothing nar- 
row or illiberal in his political views, or in the expression 
of them. He had the largest respect for every form of 
good government, and especially for our own republic as ad- 
ministered in its earlier days. It was plain, however, that 
he had not pliancy enough for continued success in political 
life, amid all the changes of system and dynasty of which 
for so many years France was the theatre. Nor did he covet 
office. Returning from Berlin at the close of Lamartine's 
brief though brilliant presidency, he betook himself anew to 
those varied pursuits in which he had been previously ab- 
sorbed, and was never again in public service. 



Circoiirt was not 5'-et fifty years old when he won the tribute 
from Lamartine, who had known him from his youth. Thirty 
years more of life awaited him, and he was never weary of 
reading, investigation, and study. Perhaps the very variety 
and multiplicity of his studies and acquirements, and the in- 
tense eagerness of his mind to know and master every thing, 
disabled him from grappling with any single theme, or attempt- 
ing any one great literary work. Thierry, the historian of 
the Norman conquest, once said to Ticknor, "If Circourt 
would but choose some obscure portion of history between 
A.D. 500 and 1600, and write upon it, he would leave us all 
behind." So said more than one of those who knew him 
best. But he could not be persuaded to limit or circumscribe 
the freedom of his pursuits in literature. His pen -was, in- 
deed, never idle in correspondence, in criticism, and in reviews 
of the waitings of others. He was a frequent contributor 
to " La Bibliotheque Universelle " of Geneva, to " Les Nou- 
velles Annales des Voyages," to " La Revue Britannique," 
"L'Opinione Publique," and to other well-known periodicals 
of Paris and of the Continent ; and the range of his writings 
was hardly less extensive and varied than that of his reading. 
I have a little collection of .two volumes of a part of his pro- 
ductions, as he sent them to me from time to time, and there 
are not a-few others which 'he has sent directly to our Library. 
They embrace such subjects as The Young Prince Waldemar's 
Travels in Lidia ; the Life of Frederic William IV. of Prussia ; 
The Russians on the A moor ; The Empire of the Czars; 
Travels in Africa ; The King of Dahome}^ ; The Archaeology 
of Tunis ; The Primitive Aryans ; A Visit to the Field of the 
Battle of Hastings ; Canterbury ; St. Paul's Cathedral ; 
Westminster Abbey ; Macaulay's History of England ; The 
History of the Restoration, by Viel-Castel ; Victor Cousin's 
French Society and Illustrious Women of the Seventeenth 
Centur}^ ; The Life and Works of Madame Swetchine ; The 
History of the Sv/iss Confederation ; Cino da Pistoja ; and 
Italy's latest Poet, Manzoni. 

But there are many titles of his notices and reviews which 
have a nearer interest for ourselves, and which give him a 
more special claim to a giateful remembrance on this side of 
the Atlantic. Nothing gratified Prescott more than Cir- 
court's review of his " Ferdinand and Isabella," and no other, 
as Ticknor said, "could be compared to it in amplitude and 
elaborateness." He had personally known Albert Gallatin, 
too, and he exhibited the warmest interest — inspired by the 
subject not less than by the author — in reviewing his Synop- 



sis of our Indian Tribes contained in the " Archreologia " of 
the American Antiquarian Society. Bancroft's " History of 
the United States," Ticknor's " Spanish Literature," Kirk's 
" Charles the Bold," George P. Marsh's " Man and Nature," 
" The Life and Letters of John Winthrop," and at least one 
of Parkman's volumes, were successively the subjects of his 
able and discriminating pen. The last labor which he per- 
formed on any American topic was his translation into French 
of Bancroft's volume on " The Alliance of France and the 
United States in 1778." In connection with that translation, 
and with the valuable original documents which Mr. Bancroft 
placed at his disposal for the purpose, making up a work of 
three octavo volumes, he published an original Historical 
Sketch of the American Revolution from his own point; of 
view, which, having been translated for us into English, 
anonymously, by an accomplished lady, forms a part of one 
of our recent volumes of Proceedings. 

Circourt delighted to gratify his friends in Europe and in 
America, and to associate his own name with theirs, by re- 
viewing their works. Yet he never suffered personal friend- 
ships or partialities to pervert or warp his judgment, or to 
prevent a frank, independent utterance of his own opinions. 
He was a man of transparent sincerity, true always to his 
own convictions, and as just as he was amiable and accom- 
plished. Prescott, writing to him in 1856, in reply to his 
remarks on " Philip the Second," says : "• What gave me no 
less pleasure than your general commendation was the list of 
errata which accompanied it: not that I was happy to find I 
had made so many blunders, but that I possessed a friend who 
had the candor and sagacity to point them out. I am filled 
with astonishment when I reflect on the variety, the minute- 
ness, and the accuracy of your knowledge. With this subject, 
thrown up by chance before you, you seem to be as familiar 
as if it had been your spScialite."' 

His reviews were no mere perfunctory notices, interspersed 
with sample passages and salient citations. They were honest 
and tjhorough treatments of the volumes in hand, often sup- 
plying facts which had been overlooked or omitted, and 
sometimes showing that he was more familiar with the sub- 
ject than the author himself. 

Circourt was not less remarkable for his private correspon- 
dence than for his published essays and reviews, and his 
correspondents included many eminent men of all countries. 
He was a particular friend and favorite for many years of 
Pasquier, the illustrious Chancellor of France, who had known 



6 

Franklin when he was our Minister at Paris, and who died in 
1862, in the full possession of his faculties, at ninety-five years 
of age. In the Life of the Chancellor by his late secretary, 
M. Louis Favre, published in 1870, a large number of his 
letters to Circourt will be found, and they are introduced by 
an account of him derived from the impressions of the vener- 
able chancellor, as well as from the personal knowledge of 
the author. It is not less striking than the tribute of Lamar- 
tine, in 1848. "M. de Circourt," says Favre, " S2:)eaks all 
lanffuaofes, knows all literatures and all histories. Scarce a 
volume is published — I do not say in France, but in the 
world — without his reading it ; and, what is more extraordi- 
nary, when he has read it he knows it by heart. I have seen 
him often, on the same evening, discussing with Englishmen 
the articles contained in the journals and reviews of England ; 
passing to the publications of Germany to discuss them with 
Germans ; then talking of Italy with Italians, and of Amer- 
ica with citizens of that great country ; himself, meantime, 
mistaken successive!}^ for an Englishman, a German, an Ital- 
ian, and an American ; and, finall}', exciting the admiration 
and astonishment of all by the universality of his knowledge." 

Count Circourt was born in the vicinity of Nancy, Sept. 
22, 1801. His father, a man of rare virtue and great accom- 
plishments, had been in the military service of France, and 
had shared in all the perils and sufferings of the Emigration, 
before he married and established himself in Lorraine. But 
both father and mother died while he, their eldest son, was 
still a boy. Educated partly at Besangon and partly in 
Paris, his natural relations were to the religion of his native 
country, and he never renounced them. But he had not 
the slightest tinge of intolerance or bigotry. He distin- 
guished and loved what is best in all churches. Pere 
Hyacinthe and Dean Stanley were among his most esteemed 
friends, and he often expressed the warmest sympathy with 
their views. No one had a deeper faith in an overruling 
Providence, in the goodness and justice of God, and in the 
truth of Christianity. 

He was called to a great sorrow in the terrible accident 
which befell his wife, and which terminated her life after a 
few years of suffering. That " young Russian girl," as La- 
martine had styled her in 1848, Anastasia de Klustine, had 
become, as the Countess de Circourt, one of the most remark- 
able women in French society. In her little salon, in the 
Rue de Saussayes, were to be seen all who were most distin- 
guished in the literature and the statesmanship of Paris and of 



the continent. She spoke at least as many languages as her 
husband. Not a few of her charming letters are found in the 
Life of Cavour, who was among her most confidential friends. 
A kind note of introduction from her secured me an interview 
with him, at one of the most critical periods of his career. 
" No one,"- he said to me, " with a note from Madame de 
Circourt must pass through Turin without my seeing him, 
however engrossed I ma}^ be in public affairs." But I may 
not dwell longer on such reminiscences. She died many 
years ago, and Circourt's home was left desolate. They had 
no children. 

He has left two younger brothers, at least one of whom, 
Count Albert, is well known as an author and in public 
station, and his name has been confounded with that of our 
deceased member in some of the ncAvspaper accounts of the 
death. I know not what may have been left b}' my lamented 
friend, in the way of letters or memoirs. His little chateau 
at La Celle St. Cloud was occupied by the Prussians during 
the siege of Paris, and he returned to find many things de- 
stroyed and every thing in confusion. It is to be hoped that 
some more adequate notice of so remarkable a man — biogra- 
phy or autobiography — may not be wanting to literary 
histor^^ hereafter. He had never visited America. He had 
been a great traveller in other parts of the world, but he 
shrank from the long ocean voyage. Most of his American 
friends had preceded him to the grave. One of them, our 
late estimable fellow-citizen, Mr. Coolidge, of whom he had 
seen much in Europe, and for whom he had a warm regard, 
passed away from us just as the tidings of his death reached 
us from EurojDe. I have felt it all the more incumbent on me 
not to omit paying this little tribute to his memorj^ If Ban- 
croft had been here, and with us on this occasion, he might 
have done it more fully and more worthily, but not with a 
deeper sense of its justice than my own. Neither of us can 
fail to feel sincerely how great a loss we have sustained in 
the death of a friend and correspondent so amiable and oblig- 
ing, so entertaining and instructive, and of so vast a range 
of information and accomplishment. It hardly remains for 
either of us to lose another like him. 



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